NAMES AND SYMBOLIC REPRESENTATIONS OF SPIRITUAL CENTERS

AS CONCERNS the 'supreme country', many other concordant traditions could be cited, notably its designation by another name that is probably even more ancient than Paradesha: this is the name Tula, from which the Greeks derived Thulé; and, as we have just seen, Thulé was probably identical with the original 'isle of the four Masters'. Moreover, this same name Tula was given to very diverse regions, so that even today it is still to be found as far afield as Russia and Central America, from which one must doubtless conclude that in some more or less remote age each of these regions was the seat of a spiritual power that was an emanation as it were of that of the primordial Tula. We know that the Mexican Tula owes its origin to the Toltecs, who, it is said, came from Aztlan, the 'land in the midst of the waters' (evidently none other than Atlantis), bringing with them the name Tula from their country of origin; the center to which they gave it had probably been intended to replace, in some measure, that of the lost continent.¹ But it is also necessary to distinguish the Atlantean Tula and the Hyperborean Tula, the latter then truly representing the original and supreme center for the totality of the present Manvantara; it was this that was the 'sacred isle' par excellence, having originally been situated quite literally at the Pole, as we said above. All the other 'sacred isles', which everywhere bear names of identical meaning, were only its images; and this applies even to the spiritual center of the Atlantean tradition, which only presided over a secondary historical cycle subordinate to the Manvantara.² In Sanskrit, the word Tula means 'scales', and denotes more specifically the zodiacal sign of that name [the Scales, or Libra]; there is however a Chinese tradition in which the heavenly Scales were originally the Great Bear.^[3] This point is of the greatest importance, for the symbolism attached to the Great Bear is naturally connected in the closest possible way to that of the Pole;^[4] but we cannot pursue this question here, for it demands its own special study.^[5] There would also be good reason to examine the connection that may exist between the polar Scales and the zodiacal Scales; this latter is regarded, moreover, as the 'sign of Judgement', and what was said previously, in connection with Melki-Tsedeq, of the scales as an attribute of Justice makes this name [i.e., Scales or Tula] comprehensible as the designation of the supreme spiritual center. Tula is also called the 'white isle', the color white, as we have seen, representing spiritual authority. In the American [i.e., Amerindian] traditions, Aztlan is symbolized by a white mountain, but this symbolism originally applied to the Hyperborean Tula and the 'polar mountain'. In India, the 'white isle' (Shvēta-dvīpa), which was generally set in the remote regions of the North,^[6] is regarded as the Abode of the Blessed', which clearly identifies it with the 'Land of the Living'.^[7] There is, however, an apparent exception in that Celtic traditions speak specifically of a 'green isle' as the 'isle of the Saints' or the 'isle of the Blessed;^[8] in the center of this island there rises the 'white mountain', which is said never to have been submerged in any deluge,^[9] and the summit of which is purple in color.^[10] This 'mountain of the Sun', as it is also called, is the equivalent of Meru, which is the 'white mountain girded in green' by virtue of the fact that it is situated in the middle of the sea,^[11] with a triangle of light shining at its summit. To the various designations of spiritual centers, such as 'white isle' (a designation that like the others could, we repeat, be applied not only to the supreme center, to which it originally appertained, but to secondary centers as well), we must add the names of places, countries, and cities that likewise express the idea of whiteness. These are numerous enough, from Albion and Albania, to Alba Longa, the mother city of Rome,^[12] and other ancient cities that may have borne the same name; among the Greeks the name of the city of Argos has the same signification.^[13] The reason for these facts will be made clear in what follows. Something remains to be said about the representation of a spiritual center as an island—one enclosing a 'sacred mountain', moreover—because, while such a location could actually have existed (although not all 'Holy Lands' were islands), it must have a symbolic meaning as well. Historical facts themselves, and especially those of sacred history, in fact translate in their own way truths of a superior order by reason of the law of correspondence that is the very foundation of symbolism, and that unites all the worlds in total and universal harmony. The idea evoked by the representation in question is essentially the 'stability' that is also precisely what characterizes the Pole: the island remains immovable amid the ceaseless tossing of the waves, which represents the agitations of the external world; and one must have crossed the 'sea of passions' in order to reach the 'Mount of Salvation', the 'Sanctuary of Peace'.^[14]

Footnotes

[1]The ideographic sign of Aztlan or of Tula was the white heron; the heron and the stork play the same role in the West as does the ibis in the East, all three birds figuring among the emblems of Christ. Among the Egyptians, the ibis was one of the symbols of Thoth, that is, of Wisdom.

[2]A major difficulty in determining precisely the meeting-point of the Atlantean and the Hyperborean traditions results from various name substitutions which have given rise to multiple confusions; but in spite of everything the question is perhaps not entirely insoluble.

[3]The Great Bear is even said to have been called the ‘Scales of Jade', jade being a symbol of perfection. Among other peoples the Great Bear and the Little Bear have been assimilated to the two pans of a scale. This symbolic scale is not without connection with one referred to in the Siphra de-Tzeniutha (the 'Book of Mysteries', a section of the Zohar): the latter is 'suspended in a place that is not', that is, in the 'non-manifested', which for our world is represented by the polar point; one can say moreover that it is on the Pole that the equilibrium of the world effectively rests. [^]: [In his book Kabbalah (various editions) Gershom Scholem transliterates the title as Sifra de-Zeni'uta, which he translates as 'The Book of Concealment', and which S.L.M. Mathers translates as ‘The Book of the Concealed Mystery'. For Guénon's 'suspended in a place that is not', Mathers has 'this equilibrium hangeth in that region which is negatively existent, in the Ancient One.' See S.L. MacGregor Mathers, The Kabbalah Unveiled (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1974), p44. See also Guénon's article 'The Siphra de-Tzeniutha' in his Traditional Forms and Cosmic Cycles, pt. 3. ED.]

[4]In India the Great Bear is the sapta-riksha, that is, the symbolic dwelling of the seven Rishis; this naturally conforms with the Hyperborean tradition, whereas in the Atlantean tradition the Pleiades, also formed of seven stars, replace the Great Bear in this role; it is known moreover that for the Greeks the Pleiades were the daughters of Atlas and, as such, were also called Atlantides.

[5]In connection with what was said earlier concerning the phonetic similarity of Meru and meros, it is also curious to note that among the ancient Egyptians the Great Bear was called the constellation of the Thigh.

[6]Shvēta-dvīpa is one of the eighteen subdivisions of the Jambu-dvīpa.

[7]This also brings to mind the ‘Isles of the Blessed' of Western antiquity; but these islands were located in the West (the 'garden of the Hesperides', hesper in Greek, vesper in Latin, signifying the evening, that is, the West), which indicates a tradition of Atlantean origin, and which from another point of view reminds us of the 'Western Sky' of the Tibetan tradition.

[8]The name 'isle of the Saints', as well as 'green isle', was later applied to Ireland, and even to England. Note also that the name of the island of Heligoland has the same meaning.

[9]Similar traditions concerning the Terrestrial Paradise have already been pointed out. In Islamic esoterism, the 'green isle' (al jezirah al-khadrah) and the 'white mountain' (al-jabal al-abiyad) are also well known, although very little is said about them to outsiders.

[10]We have to do here with the three Hermetic colors—green, white, and red—of which we spoke in The Esoterism of Dante.

[11]It is sometimes also a matter of a girdle of rainbow colors, which can be compared with the sash of Iris; Saint-Yves alludes to it in his Mission de l'Inde, and the same thing is found in the visions of Anne-Catherine Emmerich. The reader may wish to refer to what was said above on the symbolism of the rainbow, as well as that of the seven dvīpas.

[12]The Latin albus, 'white', can moreover be related to the Hebrew laban, which has the same meaning, and whose feminine form Lebanah serves to designate the moon; in Latin, Luna can mean both 'white' and 'luminous', these two ideas moreover being connected.

[13]Between the adjective argos, 'white', and the name of the city, there is only a simple difference of accentuation, the name of the city being neuter in gender, whereas Argus is the same word in masculine form. This calls to mind the ship Argo (which moreover was said to have been constructed by Argus, and the mast of which was made of an oak from the forest of Dodona); in this case the word may also signify ‘swift', this being considered an attribute of light (and especially of lightning), although the primary meaning is 'whiteness' and hence 'luminosity'. Silver [argent], which is the white metal and corresponds astrologically to the moon, derives from the same word, the Latin argentum and the Greek arguros obviously having an identical root.

[14]'The Yogi, having crossed over the sea of passions, is united with Tranquillity and possesses the "Self" in its fullness,' says Shankarāchārya (Atmā-Bodha). Here the passions are taken to mean all the contingent and transitory modifications that constitute the ‘current of forms'; it is the domain of the ‘lower waters' according to the symbolism common to all traditions, which is why the conquest of the 'Great Peace' is often represented as a voyage (this being one of the reasons why in Catholic symbolism the Church is represented by a barque); it is also sometimes represented by a war, and the Bhagavad Gītā may be interpreted in just this way, as could also the theory of the ‘holy war' (jihād), according to Islamic doctrine. Let us add that 'walking on the waters' symbolizes domination over the world of forms and change, Vishnu being called Nārāyana, ‘He who walks on the waters'; a connection with the Gospels, where precisely this walking on the waters is reported of Christ, is inevitable here.